Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

Film/Video

“If you think films can’t change the world, see Granito and think again.”—About.com

Sometimes a film makes history, it doesn’t just document it. Granito, part political thriller and part memoir, takes us through a riveting, haunting tale of genocide and justice than spans four decades. Director Pamela Yates’s 1982 documentary When the Mountains Tremble introduced the world to the genocide of the Mayan people by the Guatemalan government (which forms the backstory of El Norte) and contained the only known footage of the army as it carried out this tragedy. Yates’s original film and its outtakes became evidence in an international war-crimes case against the former army commander 25 years later, and Granito captures the arc of history as it bends towards justice. (103 mins., video)